


no matter where you are

by orphan_account



Category: Block B
Genre: M/M, Polyamorous relationship, boys being dumb, sex criminals au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 16:20:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3296826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>sex criminals au, a.k.a. the trial and tribulations of park kyung and his glowing dick</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. part 1

**Author's Note:**

> written as a very belated birthday fic for bee. beta'd by vic. all faults are mine. no matter where you are is the title of the book of life ending ost that was on repeat while writing the ending. the original sex criminals comic is by fraction and zdarsky. 'tis a great read that I'd recommend to anyone.

Kyung wouldn’t call himself an exhibitionist. He has boundaries, he truly does. And yet, when his phone buzzes and he sees his text he raises his hand and asks to be excused to the toilet.

[from: Jiho]  
[to: me]  
can we meet in 5??? Didn’t study for math

He curses Jiho’s bad timing, because the geography class room is practically the furthest away once can be from the gross, deserted bathroom that is their usual meeting spot. Besides, it’s one of the first tests of the year, couldn’t Jiho have studied for _once_ in his life?

The younger boy is already waiting there for him, seated on the one of the few sinks that aren’t dirty, swinging his long legs. The tap is running, the water steadily dripping down in the sink.

“What took you so long?” Kyung just rolls his eyes and starts unbuckling his pants, shoving them down over his thighs and gesturing to his crotch.

“Come on Jiho, get to it.”

“It’s your turn to get us off this time!”

“You’re the one who didn’t fucking study, now _get to it_. You know teacher Choi always gets suspicious if I take longer than five minutes.” Jiho sighs but slips off the sink. Even standing he still towers over Kyung. Long limbs reach down between them, first to unbuckle Jiho’s own uniform trousers. It’s not long before slender, nimble fingers wrap around him and Kyung bites on his lips to stifle the sounds.

They’ve been doing this for little over a year and a half and by now they’ve perfect the art of making each other come as quickly as possible. Sometimes, Kyung wonders what’d it be like to really take their time, to actually have sex as opposed to getting each other off. But he quickly is forced to stop thinking about (sappy, idiotic) matters such as those when Jiho does something that feels _real_ good.

He makes an unhappy sound when the younger slows down, but they know each other’s tellers by now and Jiho’s not as close as Kyung is. He sighs, deciding to be the good Samaritan as he reaches down too. Between the two of them it’s not long until it washes over the both of them; the calm and quiet warmth. They’re enveloped in a symphony of colors and lights and it feels so _nice_.

Kyung pulls away from Jiho’s embrace, smiling up at his best friend. Jiho goofily smiles back, pushing some hair from his face as they share a moment. It doesn’t matter how many times they do this; it’s always just as amazing as the first time. Perhaps a little better, because the first time was scary and weird and Kyung had been too shy to even meet Jiho’s eyes for a week afterwards.

“Tissue?” Jiho offers, getting them out of his pocket with his clean hand. Kyung gladly accepts; he’d rather wash his hands but the water is suspended mid-air, floating perfectly still. They button up their pants again, and even now Kyung can’t stop snickering at the fact that he can see the glowing head of Jiho’s dick through the dark fabric. If he looks down, he can see the same in his own pants. It’s an after effect, or so they think. It’s not something they can ask anyone else, because they’ve never met someone else like them before.

“Why couldn’t you just study like anyone else?” Kyung grumbles, though the small, blissed out smile on his face shows that he’s not as annoying as he likes to pretend to be. After all, a quick handjob is still a quick handjob. And Kyung _likes_ this, sharing this world of lights and colors with his best friend. He even likes getting off with Jiho, perhaps more than he should.

“I was up writing lyrics all night.” Were their movements frantic and hurried before, they are now relaxed and at ease as they step outside of the bathroom. There is a bully pushing a victim in the locker nearby, entirely frozen. Kyung frowns before pushing the bully slightly, the statue-like weight toppling over. It should be enough to give the victim an opportunity to run. They round the corner, see a teacher frozen in the middle of picking up paper they had dropped. Kyung’d like to help, but they can’t change too much without it becoming suspicious.

“Then why couldn’t you stop time _then_?” Because that’s what they do.

Somehow, best friends Woo Jiho and Park Kyung stop time when they orgasm.

It’s not like they found out _together_. And it certainly wasn’t the thing that kept them tied together. They’d been friends since before puberty and hormones kicked in and they (separately!) found out that time stops when they freeze. While they couldn’t pinpoint the origin of their gift, neither of them complained. Kyung liked the weird intimacy it gave them, the enormity of the secret that they were sharing –and the fact that he wasn’t _alone_ in being weird.

Jiho gives him a sheepish look that quite clearly says that he didn’t think it through and Kyung sighs as they make their way to the math classroom as they will have their test next period. Math is Kyung’s least favorite subject to sex-freeze. Some teachers keep the correct answers with the test prior to handing it out. If not, then they can grab their books and make the test like that. They’ve got the time, after all. But with math, Kyung has to make it all by himself, sometimes with a little help from Jiho, and hope his mathematical skills don’t fail him.

“Oh, this test is easy” he says after finding it. He sits down in the corner, Jiho sitting down next to him. Kyung has long since grown used to the frozen staring faces of the other students, most of them direction to the teacher they’re sitting behind. They used to unnerve both of them and they’d rather sit outside in the hall but it’s not so bad now. “You could’ve passed it without studying.”

“Better safe than sorry, right?” Jiho says, leaning over his shoulder. “I think you’re maki—“

“Shush” Kyung says, swatting at the finger Jiho’s attempt to point at his calculation. “Who’s the math genius here? That’s right, not you. Now shut up and let me do this.” Jiho is quiet next to him. In a way, math is good. Math is safe. Math is entirely unsexy. Because the moment they feel ready to do it again—bam. Gone will be the sex-freeze warmth enveloping them.

“Alright, all done.” He’s not sure how long they’ve been at it—clocks don’t work when they’re in a sex-freeze. All Kyung knows is that his legs are cramped as he gets up. Jiho places the test back in the teacher’s bag before taking the sheet Kyung wrote the answers on, shoving it in his pocket.

“Wanna go sit in the sun?” Jiho says. He considers it a bit before shrugging.

“Yeah sure.” He doesn’t feel like going back to class, he rarely does after one of their escapades even though he knows he has to. His parents will murder him if he skips. But that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy their remaining time in the sex-free—

Somebody bumps into Kyung as they round the corner. They actually _move_. It takes Kyung a moment to register before he realizes that somebody is either immune to their gift _or possesses the same gift as them._

“What the fu—“ The phrase is uttered by all three of them before they recognize each other. The ‘Jiho?! Kyung?!’ is countered with a ‘Yukwon?!’

“What are you—I should ask you that—what the fuck.”

“I—we—“ Kyung starts.

“Math!” Jiho blurts out, at the same time as Yukwon says “History!”

“Wait—does this mean that you—“ Kyung asks as realization sets in, grimacing. “Shit, I know more about you than I want to.”

“What about me?” Yukwon says with an answering expression. “You guys—together?”

“It’s just—“  The lights and the calm spontaneously cut out as everyone around them starts moving again. It’s like someone had been holding their breath and now exhaled. Kyung glares at the other two boys.

“Okay, so which one of you two fuckers thought about sex?” he hisses, smiling as the principal comes through. Thank God they’re all decent. He can read the semi-guilty expression on Jiho’s face and groans.

“ _Dude_!” Yukwon says, annoyed. “I wasn’t done yet—I gotta—“

“Yeah, we get it” Kyung says quickly, painfully aware of what the other boy is about to do (again, his mind helpfully supplies) in a few minutes. “We need to get back to class.” Yukwon nods, and nobody meets anyone’s eyes.

It’s a minute and a few hallways later, just when they are about to split up and head to their separate classes, that Jiho comes to a halt with a loud ‘ _fuck_ ’.

“What is it?” Kyung asks, worried that he’s lost the cheat sheet or something similar. Something that can get them in trouble.

“I forgot to check if his dick glowed.”

Kyung laughs for the rest of his way back to class.

 

 

They’re not exactly monogamous. In fact, Kyung’s not even sure they’re _committed_. They’re just two best friends who get each other off in order to spend time together when the rest of the world is frozen. He’s not sure if there’s a word for that. Maybe he should invent one.

He’s contemplating this in bed, on a Saturday around one am. Normally he wouldn’t be in bed around this time; he’d be doing something with Jiho, whether it was hanging around at one of their places and play games and write lyrics or having fun somewhere at a party, they usually spend most of their time outside of school together. Their gift created a strong bond; there’s few people who know the panic and fear that accompanies what they share. Kyung had actually been afraid it was some sort of Divine Punishment for touching himself. Nothing creates a stronger friendship than the knowledge that you’re not alone.

But this weekend is spend with his family, going out for dinner to celebrate his father’s birthday, while Jiho is partying it up alone at some sort of party he’d found somewhere through his brother. Kyung was slightly jealous, though he wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Jiho got invited to a cool party along with his brother or the fact that it seemed like his best friend was probably going to get laid within the hour, going by the way he kept smugly texting Kyung once in a while. Why the bastard was texting him anyway was beyond the older boy. Why didn’t he just get laid instead of trying to make Kyung a part of it?

[from: Jiho]  
[to: me]  
the guy’s like really hot? and I think he’s got abs or something

Kyung is pretty sure the only reason that Jiho’s text is understandable is due to autocorrect. His best friend gives off the vibe that he’s drunk. He groans, hiding his face In the pillows as he locks his screen again, slamming his phone on the nightstand. It buzzes, and then it buzzes again. He glares at it, trying to silence the thing with his mind. As if needing to get the last word in, his phone buzzes again before it seems to go quiet for a few minutes. He keeps glaring at it, even if he lowers his face to the pillow again.

_I shouldn’t begrudge him this…he is his own person, he can sleep with who he wants to_ Kyung tells himself. _It’s not like we’re dating._ He shouldn’t be jealous. They aren’t in a relationship, for God’s sake. He is just…worried. Yes, worried is the right word. After all, Kyung knows what it can be like; climaxing on his own, your partner froze in the middle of the act. The engulfing loneliness, the feeling of being and weird and strange. Like that, a sex-freeze can almost feel trapping with the inability to text or to reach out for anyone else. He didn’t want anyone to experience that, least of all his (drunk) best friend.

_Still Jiho’s choice_ , he thinks as he slowly drifts off to sleep, not bothering to check his messages. They become lost in the mess of notifications and messages overnight and he forgets to check as he gets up and gets ready to face the day. Luckily there’s not much of a day to be faced; his homework mostly has been done and he has some time with his best friend to catch up with, so after breakfast Kyung sets out for the Woo residence.

It’s Jiseok who opens the door after a few minutes. The older Woo brother doesn’t seem to be very awake, his hair sticking up in weird angles and his eyes still bleary, lazily chewing his breakfast before he steps aside to let Kyung in. Kyung bets that Jiseok would’ve let anyone in right now, only half-awake as he is.

“Where’s Jiho?” he asks. Jiseok shrugs before swallowing.

“I don’t know—he said he was going to crash at yours?”

“Oh fuck.” Kyung checks his messages from last night, quickly finding Jiho’s last message sent at unholy o’clock.

[from: Jiho]  
[to: me]  
I’m gonna stay over w/ this guy…told hyung I’m crashing at urs

“Ah, fuck, I ruined it” he curses. He wishes his dick could turn back the time too. Luckily Jiseok mostly seems amused, rather than annoyed.

“Don’t worry, our parents are gone this weekend. His secret is safe with me.”

“It’s not” Kyung points out. “You’ll use it against him as blackmail.” Jiseok grins semi-sheepishly around his next bite, the family resemblance almost uncanny. Suddenly, Kyung wonders if his dick glows and stops time too and he starts coughing in an attempt to cover up the pained sound he makes at the thought. Kyung realizes he’s been thinking about dicks a whole lot more often than he’d like lately, and he blames Yukwon for this.

“Jiseok?” a sleepy voice asks. A short girl makes her way down the stairs, Jiseok’s t-shirt too big for her and slipping off her shoulder. She rubs in her eye, yawning a little. Kyung stares at her, before his eyes dart back to the older Woo brother.

“Jackpot” he grins. Blackmail to counter the blackmail. This is sure to get him back in Jiho’s good graces.

 

He finally meets Jiho in the park a while later after Jiseok’s frantic explanations of the girl who just came down the stairs until he’d given up and bribed Kyung into keeping silent with secrets. He’s sitting on the slightly damp grass, tilting his head back and letting the sun warm him as he waits for his friend. He looks up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Too late he notices that it’s not one but two pairs of feet making their way to him and he cracks an eye open.

Jiho’s followed by an equally gigantic guy. Slightly broader with dark hair and a handsome face, it’s not hard to guess that this is the guy Jiho went home right now. He’s wearing a comfortable looking shirt and a backwards snapback to looks like it actually belongs to Jiho. There is a camera around his neck. Kyung belatedly recognizes him as one of the older boys from their school. Kyung thinks he’s seen him hanging around with Yukwon’s friend Minhyuk. The guy smiles and shyly waves at him. Kyung has no reason to, but he dislikes the guy instantly.

“Hey” Jiho greets, unaware of the cloud that suddenly developed above Kyung’s head. “Sorry man..I did text you though.”

“Yeah, I know. I already was asleep though.” He glances at Jaehyo, before glancing back at Jiho. It takes a few seconds of silent communication before Jiho speaks up again.

“This is Ahn Jaehyo..he’s in the year above us.” So Kyung was correct, he is from their school and it’s not unlikely he hangs with Minhyuk. Jaehyo smiles awkwardly, waving a little as he sits down next to Jiho, sticking a little to Kyung’s side. He’s got a bad feeling about this.

It only gets worse as they interact. Jaehyo seems nice enough, but something about the older guy must’ve captivated Jiho because he can’t stop flirting with him. It’s starting to get a little gross, really, so at one point Kyung makes use of Jaehyo checking his phone to nudge Jiho. He gets a questioning look from his best friend.

“He’s not very hip hop…do you know if he even likes rap?” Jiho gives him a plain annoyed look and it shuts Kyung up. He stays quiet for most of the time, until Jaehyo has to go home to help his brother with something. Even after the elder is gone, Kyung doesn’t dare speak up about it. He’d much rather keep the peace.

 

 

“Do you think it’s just us?” Kyung asks one night, laying on Jiho’s bed after having banished the younger to the floor as they play video games. Kyung is losing terribly, but he’s distracted so he has a decent excuse.

“Us what?” Jiho asks, eyes on the screen and more focused on passing Princess Peach than listening (and losing) to his best friend.

“You know, _us_ ” Kyung repeats, vaguely gesturing with his hands. “The thing.” At the confused hum from his friend he sighs and meaningfully says “The _dick_ thing, Jiho.”

“Oh, that…well, obviously not. There’s Yukwon too.” Kyung grimaces, not willing to remember that incident. It was awkward and he now knows more about Kim Yukwon than he ever wanted to.

“Yeah” he says, trying to push the third boy out of his mind, “but I mean…other people who are not Kim Yukwon. Maybe somewhere in America, or Europe. Or girls. I mean, we’ve only met another guy. Or just… _anyone_. Mino maybe…or Junhee…”

“Do you think it’s contagious?” Kyung splutters at that.

“Do you mean that you and Yukwon—“

“No! No of course not! I was just wondering if...I don’t know…Maybe other people could get it too?”

“And with other people you mean Jaehyo hyung?” Kyung guesses, trying not to sound too bitter.

“Yeah” Jiho says, almost sheepishly. “I mean…it’d be nice, you know? To know more people who do what we do.” Kyung bites his lip, wants to cruelly ask if Jiho’s trying to replace him. So instead he fires the blue shield he’d been saving for the last lap, passing his best friend with the soundtrack of offended spluttering.

 

To say that his feelings about Ahn Jaehyo are conflicting is an understatement. He tries to avoid the topic as much as possible with Jiho, because he knows his best friend is stupidly in love with him and Kyung can’t bear to ruin it for him. But while sitting alone in the library because Jiho is too busy entertaining his boyfriend to hang out with his best friend, Kyung can muster nothing more than bitter resentment for the older boy.

Yet Jaehyo is awfully kind to him. He never fails to greet Kyung when they bump into each other, albeit awkwardly, and always inquires on how he’s doing. He shows him the pictures he took; the ones with Kyung, the ones with ducks in the nearby pond or the giant duck that was in the harbor he seems to have a fascination with. When it’s just the two of them –which happens rarely, if Kyung has any say in it—it’s alright, though awkward. The older boy must be aware of the awkward, semi-hostile attitude Kyung directs towards him, no matter how oblivious he seems.

What Kyung dislikes most is when he’s third wheeling them. He never does it intentionally, doesn’t want to, but it happens; he and Jiho are having lunch and Jaehyo joins him or they walk home and Jiho didn’t tell him he was meeting his new boyfriend halfway. He’s happy that Jiho’s happy, but he can’t help but feeling slightly jealous about it all.

Not because he lost Jiho’s undivided attention –Kyung has more than enough friends of his own to hang out with, thank you very much—but because the texts, the glances, the _meetings_ stopped. Gradual at first, until Kyung spends an entire day waiting for a text because he knows for a fact Jiho hasn’t studied for their history test. In the end, he does it all by himself and slaps the spare cheat sheet on Jiho’s desk without another word before taking his seat and not looking at his friend’s guilty face. He screws up his own test, too distracted to focus.

And yet after school Jaehyo is been waiting for Jiho but smiles at Kyung, pats his back when Kyung informs him he fucked up his test, offers Kyung a chance to join them to get ice cream before he and Jiho go off to do so after a solid refusal.

And as Kyung watches them go, practically arm and arm and joking amongst themselves, he thinks it’s not Jaehyo he minds so much.

Just the idea of Jaehyo and the disruption of the status quo.  



	2. part 2

“Kyung!” He looks over his shoulder as the other boy hurries to catch up with him, nearly tripping over his own feet in his hurry to reach him. Kyung pauses, waiting for Jaehyo to make his way to him.

“Hyung” he asks, not even quite that unfriendly, “’sup?”

“W-where’s Jiho?” he pants with a (stupidly attractive) smile. Kyung frowns, remembers something about Jiho mentioning going to the pool after school with Jaehyo. That was before he had to go home after a spontaneous asthma attack earlier that had left Kyung’s nerves frayed and jittery.

“He went home. He didn’t feel so great” Kyung says simply, knowing that Jiho hates having the fact that he is an asthmatic spread around. Kyung doesn’t see why; asthma could get him out of a lot of P.E. classes but the younger stubbornly continues to participate. Kyung’s not sure whether his best friend is stupid or admirable. Probably a mix of both.

“Oh.” The disappointment is clear, but Jaehyo must come to the same conclusion that Jiho doesn’t like his weaknesses broadcasted and nods sagely. “We were going to the pool today.”

“Yeah, he mentioned. It’s nice weather for it.” It is; the sun is shining and there barely is any wind. The pool definitely was a good idea. Maybe he should find someone to go to the pool with.

“Want to go with me?” Jaehyo offers all of a sudden. For all intents and purposes, he looks a bit shy. Or awkward; Kyung isn’t exactly sure. “I mean, I was going with Jiho..but he’s not feeling well. And you’re his best friend – we should be friends too.”

Perhaps Jaehyo wasn’t as oblivious to Kyung’s apparently not so hidden dislike as he’d assumed. He feels a little bit guilty for it, and the guy looks so hopeful that Kyung just _can’t_ say no. Besides, it’s Friday, he has the entire weekend to do homework and his house is on the way from school to the pool.

And maybe if he’d like Jaehyo just a little bit more as a person, he could be alright with the disruption of the status quo. If not, then he can at least tell Jiho that he tried.

“Sure” he says with a small shrug. He answers the smile on Jaehyo’s face with a small smile of his own as he hoists his backpack back onto his shoulder. He shoves his free hand into the pocket of his school uniform as they start walking. “Shouldn’t waste the good weather, right?”

If Jaehyo notices –and he might, as he apparently isn’t as oblivious as thought—that he’s avoiding the remark about being friends, then he doesn’t note it on the way from school to Kyung’s house. He grabs his swimming trunks and drops his bag there, leaving the house after announcing that he’s going to the pool  --“No noona, with Jaehyo, a hyung from my school. Yes, I have other friends than Jiho!”

“You have an older sister?” Jaehyo asks. Kyung nods, holding one of the snacks he’d snatched from the kitchen out to him to share.

“And a younger brother. I’m the middle kid.”

“Huh. I didn’t know.” Kyung chuckles. How much _do_ they know about each other? He vaguely picked a few things up from Jiho but he usually zones out. Does Jaehyo do the same, or does he pay attention when Jiho talks about his best friend? Kyung wouldn’t be surprised if he did, and all of a sudden he feels a little guilty.

“There’s lots about me that you don’t know” he says. “And probably lots about you that _I_ don’t know.”

“That’s true” Jaehyo agrees as they step inside the cubicles to change –separate, because while Kyung doesn’t really mind seeing people’s junk, this is Jaehyo, his best friend’s boyfriend and it’d be _weird_. The older boy continues; “I’d like to know more about you though.”

“Then come and try to find out.” He delivers the line flirtier than he wanted to, despite the cheesiness of it. He’s glad they’re in separate cubicles for now because he doesn’t need to see Jaehyo’s reaction to being flirted with by his boyfriend’s best friend. Yet the response is different from what he expects.

“Maybe I will~” Jaehyo suggests, accompanied by the sound of the cubicle unlocking. “Are you ready?”

“No!” Kyung manages to squeak out. Because for some unfathomable reason he feels himself going red. _Come_ on _man, Jiho’s boyfriend!_ he tells the weird feeling in his stomach as he takes a moment to gather himself before he steps out. He’s faced with Jaehyo, in his swimming trunks.

“Abs” he manages to bring out eloquently. Jaehyo looks down his body, as if seeing them for the first time.

“Oh, yeah” he says, almost sheepishly as they start walking so they can put their clothes in the designated lockers to keep them safe and dry. “I’ve got abs.”

“You must work out a lot, then” Kyung says, still a little surprised. He has seen Jaehyo eat, stuffing his face with fries or what other food they put in front of him. He hadn’t taken the other boy for someone with a hot body. A pretty face, a hot body….seems like the guy has it all. ( _Except a glowing dick_ , Kyung mentally tells himself.) “I didn’t expect them.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so tiny without your shoes” Jaehyo says, almost carelessly like he’s just noting something.

Kyung thoroughly enjoys his startled and displeased shrieks as he pushes the older boy into the pool.

 

The sex-freeze used to be warm and magical. A moment of bliss and safety shared between two best friends. Yet Kyung has never felt so lonely in the myriad of colors and lights around him, not even before he knew Jiho possessed glowing genitals as well.

He’s toying with the idea of just keeping the answers to himself this time, but that’d feel like going too far. They’re still friends, even if he sees Jiho less nowadays. He also wonders if it’s cruel to wish for them to break up. Yet it doesn’t seem like that; they even started sharing clothes now. They’re grossly cute.

The thought ‘at least I don’t have to deal with that right now’ jinxes it apparently because he nearly bumps into them when he rounds the corner. To see Jiho completely frozen like everybody else is a weird sight and Kyung doesn’t think he likes it. Instead he directs his attention to Jaehyo.

At first he has the urge to do some stupidly childish to him, but he knows Jiho would know that happened. So instead he looks further. Kyung’s best friend must’ve said something funny, because Jaehyo is frozen in the midst of laughing, mouth hanging open. It should look really stupid, but it looks kind of cute instead.

Did he just think Jaehyo was cute?

Kyung groans, because this should _really_ not be happening. He knows how they start, these stupid crushes. And he knows that if he doesn’t stop himself, he’ll only end up hurting himself. He can’t go around crushing on his _best friend’s_ fucking _boyfriend_. That’s a **B** ad **I** dea. So bad the capitals deserve to be bolded. So instead he looks at Jaehyo and tries to find all the little things that bothered him before.

Predictably, they’re gone.

Kyung groans, rubbing his temples. He has a test to grab, and he decides to focus on that right now. If he hurries to get away then that’s because he wants to get the copying over with, not because he’s fleeing.

 

And of course, just when he thinks it can’t get any worse, the world proves him wrong. If he’d hoped that with the recent developments surrounding Ahn Jaehyo to get Jiho out of his mind, then he was dead wrong. He doesn’t actively try to think about either of them beyond _will Jiho be hanging out with me or with Jaehyo today?_ Or _oh right, I need that pass Jaehyo’s message to Jiho when I see him in class later_. But of course his subconscious has to meddle (at this point Kyung is sure the entire world is conspiring against him).

If he closes his eyes he can still see the vivid imagery of his dreams; the wonder on the face of the Jaehyo in his dream, Jiho’s amusement as the older boy explored the world engulfed in light and color. For a moment he wonders what it’d be like to spend a sex-freeze with the both of them, at their own pace, before he shuts the thought down. He’d be third wheeling after all. And it’d mean he timed their orgasm with theirs. He doubts they’d want _him_ there in the bedroom with him.

Kyung tries to swallow his bitterness away as he stares up at the ceiling. It kind of feels like he’s drowning in his own feelings, trapped without a way to get out. He curses himself for bottling all his feelings. Usually, he’d go to Jiho to talk about it –the younger is one of the few people Kyung finds himself at ease with when he opens up—but he’s out of the question for obvious reasons. And he doesn’t want to talk about his sex life to Junhee or Mino or Jihoon or _anybody_ who isn’t Jiho. He could go to Yukwon –they do share the same secret, after all—but that’d be…awkward. He doesn’t want to go to Yukwon. Yukwon has a girlfriend.

He groans and turns around, flopping onto his belly and pressing his face into the pillow. Because smothering himself is the quickest way to end his troubles. Then again, he’s pretty sure Jiho’d find a way to reanimate his corpse for doing that. Kyung groans again and settles in for a long night.

 

Sometimes, it feels like Jaehyo is flirting with him.

The thing is that Kyung isn’t sure if this is part of his personality or not. Because he’s pretty sure there’s people who flirt with people for fun. Jaehyo could be one of these. And maybe he only does it with Kyung. Because they slowly but surely started hanging out more as the summer disappeared and the trees started turning different shades of red.

It happened on accident first; Jiho not being there for some reason, the pair of them deciding to hang out with the two of them. Until Jaehyo suddenly contacted him, asking him if he wanted to go have lunch with him.

Kyung would’ve understood this behavior of Jiho and Jaehyo weren’t doing well. But they are still disgustingly cute; wearing each other’s’ clothes and kisses on random patches of skin (and sometimes making out where Kyung could find them, often resulting him in trying to get away before things would get _hard_ to explain).

The times they hang out with the three of them increased as well. At first Kyung objected, absolutely refusing to third wheel. It took severe convincing and promising that they’d include him as well to reluctantly give in. And true to their word, they seem to include him in most of their activities.

Including their flirting.

Now flirting from Jiho he is used to. It had started out as a joke, when they’d first started sneaking around to get off together. One of them –Kyung couldn’t even remember whether it had been Jiho or himself—had complained about there being no wining and dining. It gradually devolved into ‘honeys’ and ‘babes’. They mostly did it when they were in a good mood, and Kyung had never really taken it seriously before this all started.

_Before_ he’d seriously reevaluated his feelings for his best friend, that was. The best friend ~~woo~~ who had quit flirting around the same time Jaehyo had become a regular fixture in their lives.

The fact that _Jaehyo_ , pretty face nice body Jaehyo, flirts with him kind of stumps him in the first place. That Jaehyo does it while _his boyfriend is there_ kind of stumps him more. Jiho mostly seems amused, but Kyung has trouble telling whether it is because Kyung was skillfully trying to deflect his flirting without being rude or because Jaehyo is flirting with him in the first place. It isn’t exactly typical boyfriend behavior.

All in all it is so confusing and frustrating. In fact, it’s even so confusing and frustrating to him that one day his sister leans over to look at his screen after a particularly heavy sigh during a commercial break in her favorite drama.

“Homework or girl trouble?” she guesses. It’s not homework –she can see that on his screen, but Kyung can’t exactly tell her it’s not exactly girl troubles. Though he’s sure Jaehyo could make a very pretty girl. “Wait!” she says moments later. “It’s Jiho troubles, isn’t it?”

“Jiho…troubles?” he repeats, feeling a little uneasy.

“Yeah! I don’t see him that often anymore. What’s up with him?”

“He’s got a girlfriend now.” Saehim nods with all the sage wisdom of an older sibling.

“Ah, I know what that’s like” she adds to her actions moments later. “You just have to wait until the honeymoon period is over.”

“The honeymoon period is just getting _worse_ ” he grumbles. She pats his shoulder in sympathy.  With his sister he allows himself to let go of his dignity, whining a little. “Noona, what do I do?”

“Search the internet for the answer” she decides as her drama resumes. The idea isn’t even half that bad, though it’s not something Kyung wants to research in the living room. He thanks her, even though she doesn’t hear it before going up the stairs with his laptop.

Once inside he locks the door, laughing a little at himself. He’s done much, _much_ worse than just look up how to get over his love troubles in this room, and yet this is the thing he’d rather not be caught with.

_What to do when you fall in love with your best friend and his b—_ Kyung stops typing mid-sentence. What will give more results? Does it matter? He can change his search anyway later. _–est friend?_

An hour and several searches later, Kyung stumbles upon a site that briefly mentions the phenomenon ‘polyamory’. He adjusts his google search again, and again, and again. He reads page upon page upon page upon page until there is a knock on his door and his father telling him to go to bed. A glance at the clock in the lower corner of his screen indicates that it’s nearly two. He shuts off his computer, collapsing onto his bed with a huge yawn and a satisfactory feeling.

 

The ideal moment to talk about it doesn’t come up until a few days later. They’re in the park despite the late autumn chill, sitting in the grass. None of them have a place to go; Jiseok had kicked him out so he could have make out sessions on the couch with his girlfriend, Saehim has her friends over and Changin kicked him out for reasons even Jaehyo isn’t clear on. He’s not even thinking about it as much; in fact, he’s focused on trying to decipher the mess of formulae Jiho has used to get the (wrong) math answer rather than polyamory.

“And then you subtract this—and then you get this answer. The _right_ answer.” He’s allowed to be a little smug about it, he thinks as he hands the younger his notebook back.

“What would we have done without you Kyung, hmm?” Jaehyo says suddenly. But here’s the thing; had Jiho said it, then Kyung would’ve gone along with it. Joked that Jiho would’ve been nothing without Kyung. Something they both know not only to be true, but also to go both ways. Without each other there would be nobody to share the lesser secrets with, no less the sex-freeze.

But Jaehyo is different. Jaehyo isn’t years upon years upon years of history. Jaehyo’s tone isn’t the joking tone Jiho would’ve used. It’s something that can only be described as flirty. And Kyung wonders; why not now? Why not talk about it now?

Though that is easier thought than done, because after a few moments Jaehyo awkwardly scrapes his throat, Jiho offering an equally as awkward “Kyung?” He startles from his reverie and smiles, though it feels awkward and painful on his face.

“Hey guys” he starts, “are you serious with the flirting?” The couple shares a look.

“What if we are?” Jaehyo retorts. Kyung’s answer is nothing but an eloquent _uhm_. Okay, so he was hoping that there was some kind of potential but this isn’t what he expected. This is _better_ than he expected, but it still takes him aback, if even just for a moment. Apparently the other two decide to give no quarter.

“You know Kyung, Amber invited us on a double date which means that we need an extra person” Jiho starts. He frowns, not understanding what Jiho means.

“I thought she has a girlfriend? And isn’t she only into girls?”

“She’s into girls, yeah” Jiho confirms, smirking. “But she has two girlfriends. So we need to have two boyfriends.”

“So” Jaehyo adds, tone a mix of awkward and excited, “what do you think about it?” Kyung is quiet for a few moments.

“That’s a really sneaky way of asking for a polyamorous relationship, guys.”

 

 Things change only gradually after that. They don’t immediately jump into bed together. It’s not that Kyung doesn’t want to. The thing is that he isn’t sure how Jiho has been handling his glowing dick problem and he has no idea how they are going to handle it together. And their glowing genitalia isn’t the only thing that needs to talk. Kyung wants this to work. It takes a lot of talking and work to make this entire relationship work out; it’s not just any two guys he’s committing to. It’s Jiho, his childhood best friend who has _always_ been there for him; when he scraped his knee, when people tried to bully him, when Kyung found out he froze time by orgasm. And day by day, Kyung is more scared to lose Jaehyo too.

So instead they limit themselves to kisses in dark corners where nobody’ll see him, ventures to the bathroom that don’t end in orgasm. Touches that are nothing more than fleeting caresses that don’t have any sexual intention behind them. And while there is nothing different about the manner in which Jaehyo touches Kyung and vice versa (other than an increase) it’s a little different with Jiho. Of course they’d touched each other countless times over the years; rough housing and hugging and more rough housing and _sex_ , but not this; the way a lover comforts, rather than a friend. And sometimes, the kisses they share are less urgent and frantic and foreplay but rather a kiss in itself.

He’s more hesitant with Jaehyo, afraid to screw this up. Jiho and Kyung are like an old married couple, but Jaehyo is shiny and new and while Jiho might’ve found out what Jaehyo likes, he refuses to tell Kyung. Something about taking away the novelty of it all and changing the course of their relationship. Kyung is pretty sure Jiho is just being a smug asshole about it all, but as a matter of fact he loves that smug asshole so he threatens to withhold kisses rather than to kick his ass.

Jaehyo kisses Kyung first. In fact, for the longest time Jaehyo is initiating things when it’s just the two of them. Somehow, Kyung still feels like he’s crossing a line and breaking an unwritten rule when he kisses the boy that for the longest time was Jiho’s and Jiho’s alone. Kisses with Jaehyo are tentative at first, hesitant as they learn what the other like but they slowly grow more confident until they have to pull away before things get a little _too_ heated in hidden corners and bedrooms in house where people are still _there_ and able to listen in.

They all try to be unhurried about this, but in the end they are all three teenage boys. Jiho’s mom is at work one night, and Jiseok and his girlfriend were bribed easily enough. There’s a strange sort of tension in the air, though either Jaehyo doesn’t notice, chalk it up to the fact that the Chance is there or just doesn’t care. Yet Jiho and Kyung can’t help but shoot glances at Jiho once in a while. The ones he get in return are equally as worried.

Kyung’s not quite sure why they attempt to watch a movie. Especially as halfway through Jiho shamelessly sits up, swinging one leg over Kyung’s body and leans down to kiss him. He eagerly responds until he’s out of breath, grinning up at Jiho. This part, at least, he knows.

Then Jaehyo is looming over him, smile calm and reassuring as he too leans down to kiss him. The kiss starts out careful but it isn’t long until Kyung is straining up against where Jiho is still lounging on top of him, trying to get closer to Jaehyo.

“Does that mean that I now indirectly kissed Jaehyo?” Jiho wonders as they break away. Kyung can’t help but chuckle at his silly remark, chuckle growing into a laugh as Jaehyo winks and says;

“You could _directly_ kiss me.”

Things grow more frantic after that. Jaehyo and Jiho are clearly used to each other, as are Jiho and Kyung and it’s the former on who they focus. He gets the most of their attention, until Jiho looks like he’s close and gives Kyung a pleading look. He kisses him one more time before turning on Jaehyo. Jiho joins him and shows him _exactly_ what Jaehyo likes. It’s no surprise that Jaehyo is the first to come.

It’s different and the same afterwards. It’s familiar and thus comforting, but for once Kyung and Jiho can take their time. Not that they need it, by now. But they’re not racing against the clock and teacher that want them back in class on time. Kyung can explore to his heart’s content, and Jiho does the same thing. It’s amazing and he doubts that it will ever get old.

 That’s his last thought before he comes and time slowly comes to a halt. His heart is beating rapidly and not just because of the sex. It has been _so_ long since they’d spend time together this way that Kyung had almost forgotten how _perfect_ Jiho looks with that satisfied post-orgasm smile on his face. It kind of takes his breath away, really.

“Look at him” Jiho says, nudging him gently. And Kyung follows his gaze and _again_ his breath is stolen. Jaehyo has never looked so beautiful before, frozen in time and surrounded by colours dancing through Kyung’s field of vision. He’s sweaty and gross and down for the count and yet Kyung has never seen him be so damn _beautiful_. Not like _this_.

“Yeah, I know” Jiho says smugly at Kyung’s adoring gaze. “I’ve got good taste.”

“Shut up, remember when you wanted dreadlo—“

“Okay, I’ve got good taste in boyfriends. I mean, hyung, _you_.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Woo Jiho” Kyung laughs before kissing him to shut him up. They settle a little, draping a blanket over Jaehyo so he won’t get cold when the Freeze and its warmth disappears.

“So” Kyung asks after a long beat of silence, “it’s not contagious, huh?” Jiho looks a little pained at his question and he immediately regrets it, but they can’t postpone this conversation forever and now is as good as a moment as any, really.

“No” he answers with a sigh. “It’s not.” Kyung worries his lip and watches Jiho. The younger doesn’t like it; he can read it in Jiho’s face as clear as day. He wonders if Jaehyo could, if he’d been in Kyung’s position. He wonders if one day, he will be able to read Jaehyo’s face as easily as Jiho’s.

“Do we…tell him?” Jiho shrugs. He looks as conflicted as Kyung feels and so he reaches out, squeezing Jiho’s pianist hands with his own until he meets Kyung’s eyes so he can flash him a hesitant smile. “We don’t have to..”

“But you shouldn’t keep secrets in a relationship” Jiho points out. His face is serious and thoughtful, and Kyung doesn’t like it. He never liked Talking to Jiho. And he’s right, but how would they even start to explain this ability? This whatever it is, because to Kyung it’s starting to look a little like a curse sometimes.

“It’s still early” he offers in return. “We can tell him later. When we’re ready. Eventually.”

“Eventually” Jiho echoes as the magic starts to fade a bit by bit before disappearing all together. Jaehyo stirs, surprised by the sudden appearance of a blanket. He groans sleepily, and apparently Jiho speaks fluent post-sex Jaehyo because he shushes him with a kiss to his temple. It’s enough to make the older boy settle, but not before he’s pulled Kyung close. Jiho manoeuvres himself so that Kyung is sandwiched between them. Kyung smiles at their attentiveness. It’s clear that they are trying to make sure that he doesn’t feel like an interloper, and it’s sweet. Things are strange and new but Kyung likes it, and he decides to make a point of being the one to kiss Jaehyo at some point. But it has to be special, like Jaehyo is. Like Jiho is. Like his _relationship_ is. _Their_ relationship. It’s the last thought in his mind as he falls asleep with a smile.

 

In the end, the first time Kyung kisses Jaehyo is nothing as special as he thought it should be. He _does_ remember all the small details though: The autumn has been chased away by freezing winter winds and they are all wrapped up against the cold in their own ways. Jaehyo has taken extra precautions, claiming that it would snow that day. He’s wrapped up in a big, warm brown scarf. He looks smug when the first flakes start to fall, laughing as he holds up a gloved hand to collect their money. His ears and nose are a cute shade of red, his soon-to-be enticingly red lips hidden beneath the fabric of the scarf. For all his claims of impending snow, he’s still carrying his camera around, the bag slung around his neck.

One of the bigger, cold snowflakes lands on his nose; Jaehyo scrunches up his face, eyes crinkling in a smile. And instead of handing the money over that he just lost in the bet, Kyung grabs Jaehyo’s hand, the fabric course underneath the pad of his bare fingers as he tugs him closer while bracing himself for the taller’s heavier weight, catching him while swiftly pulling his scarf down before kissing him. Jaehyo’s hands, already in front of him in an attempt to brace himself against the collision with the floor, come up to gently cradle Kyung’s head as he smiles into the kiss. Suddenly, Kyung doesn’t feel the cold anymore, a little too lost in the texture of Jaehyo’s lips. It’s almost as good as the warmth and colours of the sex-freeze, except that it’s _Jaehyo_ and for once, it’s happening in real time.

It’s Jiho who ruins the moment; after they pull away they smile at each other, each sparkling as they meet. It’s almost like they have this secret between them, except for the fact that Kyung doesn’t know what secret. A shrill whistle interrupts their gazing and Kyung can’t help but sigh and roll his eyes at his boy(!)friend’s antics though he does so with the long suffering fondness. Jaehyo bursts into something that’s halfway between a giggle and a chuckle.

“Smooth!” Jiho says, grinning like a hyena. “That was real fucking smooth, man.” He reaches for Kyung’s hand, tugging him off balance. His feet scramble to regain their equilibrium but the ground is slippery, last night’s rain frozen over and he drags the younger down with him. Kyung groans as Jiho’s heavier weight crushes him, pressing his knee into his side in an attempt to make him get off.

“You’re fucking _heavy_ , dude” he groans out, struggling. The ground beneath him is cold and damp.

“Are you saying I’m fat?!” Jiho exclaims dramatically, wiggling around on top of Kyung and he is going to _die_ and afterwards he’s going to _haunt_ Jiho. He’ll never have sex with somebody again because Kyung will be _watching_ and pointing out _everything_ he’s doing wrong and—

“Jaehyo!” Kyung shrieks at the click of a camera. Finally Jiho rolls off him and Kyung scrambles to his feet, shivering as his too-thin jacket clings to his body, the icy cold seeping slowly into his bones. Nonetheless, he has something more important to do.

 “Delete that picture!” Jaehyo does no such thing; he seems to think the entire thing is _hilarious_. Had Kyung thought he looked beautiful before in the freeze, he now thinks Jaehyo is _absolutely perfect_ ; laughing freely with his entire body, lips kissed red by _Kyung_ and he seems to be shining with happiness. Kyung is _so_ in love with him that it almost aches. He turns his head to look at Jiho, who looks equally as alight with happiness. His mouth hangs open in a silly grin and his hair is a snowy mess. Kyung feels like the luckiest man alive.

“I’m cold!” Jiho whines next to him when Jaehyo’s finally managed to calm down. He kind of ruins the moment, but that’s alright. Kyung _loves_ him anyway.

“So am I, just suck it up! It’s your fault we ended up on the ground—“ Something obscures Kyung’s vision for a moment before they can properly start bickering. He looks up, distracted. Jaehyo’s standing next to Jiho, smiling widely at them. The three of them are connected by his gigantic scarf; it’s looped around Kyung’s neck, leading to Jiho’s and eventually ending the chain with Jaehyo. It still has fabric to spare.

Jiho is smiling too, that silly little besotted smile that both Jiho and Jaehyo sometimes wear when one of the other two do something _so_ endearing that they can’t help but feel it in their stomachs, like a thousand butterflies. By now, Kyung too is familiar with this smile and feeling. In fact, Kyung is pretty sure _he_ is smiling the same smile too. It feels good; natural. Everything feels like it is how it should have been from the very start. The road might have been treacherous and hazardous and contained a little too little glowing genitalia

And so he presses his face into the soft fabric of the scarf and wishes that things will never change.

                                                                                                fin

_bonus –_

[00:25:58] hwasa's hat: lol the ending ost for book of life is on while I'm rewriting this and it's just

[00:26:16] hwasa's hat: v fitting

[00:26:38] hwasa's hat: like I can imagine the three standing there, and then the camera goes past them and pans up at the sky and then no matter what starts playing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally posted 15 november 2014 on [lj](http://taewoob.livejournal.com/1132.html#cutid1)
> 
> come say hi, I'm storyweaving on [tumblr](http://storyweaving.tumblr.com) and [twitter](http://twitter.com/storyweaving)!


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